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Heart Mountain is an easily scrambled route just off the TransCanada Highway. It's a short drive from Calgary and just across the valley from Exshaw. It's named for a heart shapes formation visible when viewed from the highway.
Heart Mountain is an easily scrambled route just off the TransCanada Highway. It's a short drive from Calgary and just across the valley from Exshaw. It's named for a heart shapes formation visible when viewed from the highway.
It was getting late in a season with rapidly deterioration weather so we were looking for something quick and easy in the front range. I also wanted to give my new boots one more chance at being broken in before returning them. Heart Mountain fit the bill since it's either straight up or down.
We left town fairly so we could get a nice early start on the hike. When approaching from Calgary the trailhead is on the opposite side of the highway a few kilometers passed the Seebe turnoff. There will be a turnout on the right for Lac Des Arcs and overpass to the Heart Creek picnic area. This is the official trailhead but head back down the highway. The highway will cross Heart Creek and once you reach the end of the guard rail pull off the shoulder into the ditch. It will be obvious as a popular place to park and it will save a couple kilometers off the most boring part of the hike.
From the parking we followed the trail up the powerline cut to the Heart Creek interpretive trail. There's a big yellow sign warning that the summit route is a scramblers trail and not to be confused with the regular interpretive trail. Follow the trail behind the yellow sign. It will begin climbing immediately.
The trail starts out as a steep gravel trail with progressively more exposed rock. The trail is pretty heavily braided but all paths appeared to head in basically the same direction. We tried not to get too close to the vertical drop on the right.
There were a couple short sections of easy class 4 scrambling but nothing exposed. The crux of the climb is a short 3 meter section on the left side of the trail. It feels like it's slightly overhanging but it's not. It's clearly marked with two red metal markers.
From here the climb is straight forward. The route will climb steadily to the first summit where a lot of of hikers stop. It's not the real summit but provides good views. Our views were less than super as the clouds were low and covering all the surrounding peaks.
Beyond the first summit the trail dropped a little before starting a gradual climb to the next summit. The third peak along the ridge is the high point of the hike, marked by a large cairn and summit registry.
As we reached the summit the weather took a turn for the worse. The wind picked up and it started to rain. Within minutes the rain had changed to snow as the temperature dropped. Fortunately the ridge is an easy walk with no exposure so the blowing snow and ice didn't pose any real threat other than making us cold and wet.
It's worth noting that the only escape route from the ridge is at the back of the summit towards Grant MacEwan Peak and then down to Heart Creek. Trying to drop off the ridge at almost any point will likely lead you to any number or blind cliffs and you'll spend far more time backtracking and traversing than it would had you just followed the ridge.
If you're a geocacher there are currently six geocaches along this track and at least three more just off the track.
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